>>3241969Different anon here. I am someone who was self-taught for a long time (which helped me get into my dream school), went to school for a few years, and had to quit for money/medical reasons. The school I went to was a mix of an atelier and a trade school, I guess. 99% of students spent their 3rd year with a job and left the school with many job offers, so nobody there was just fucking around, everyone wanted to be a pro, and it was a great school (expensive as fuck tho). We just had to draw for 8 hrs a day and go to different classes.
Now I'm back to being self taught again. Having the teachers and older students around (we were all in the same studio) was great for getting critique or help when I was first starting out. Having an experienced mentor around really does help you improve faster, since they can just tell you what's wrong and show you what to do to fix it.
But now that I've been through both self-study and (some) art school, I can say with 100% certainty that, yes, you can emulate the same shit at home. Every exercise we had to do, every grueling class, it was just shit I already had saved up in my book/video collection. That kinda pissed me off.
Because you are by yourself without a mentor it might take a little longer, but that's okay. You just need to be able to self-motivate and find the right resources. And if you need help with that let me know, I've got a lot of suggestions ready.
You don't need to have had a passion for art since you were young. I think those people are the laziest with art because they get complimented a lot growing up and keep some bad habits (I'm one of them).
The best artist I met at school was a total beginner on his first year, 27 years old, had never really drawn in his life, he just wanted to be an artist. He absorbed every nugget of information given to him like a sponge, studied hard inside and outside of school, took critique like a champ. He's pro material for sure.
